Economic factors are one of the biggest barriers globally to gender equality. In 2016, only 15.4% of CEOs in Australia were women. Victoria’s late Minister for Women, Fiona Richardson, highlighted that in Australia there are more CEOs named Peter than there are women CEOs.

Globally, we know things can be much worse

Around the world, women earn an average of between 10-30% less than men for doing the same type of work. They’re also make up a huge portion of the informal economy. Because work in this area falls outside of regulation, workers have no guarantee they will be paid. They are also more likely to experience labour exploitation and abuse, including unsafe work conditions or harassment, forced overtime, or termination without notice.

Change isn’t coming fast enough

Too often systems are not designed to allow women to succeed. Gender inequality is perpetuated by both formal and informal systems, structures and attitudes. To achieve truly systemic change, laws, policies, behaviours and cultural norms must be significantly altered.

Through our partnerships in Asia Pacific and our advocacy work more broadly, IWDA works to create opportunities for women to start their own micro-enterprises, engage in fairly paid and work reduce barriers to their full economic participation.